Interface for voucher and coupon printing

ABSTRACT

An interface is disclosed for driving a printer to print highly secure vouchers and less secure coupons. The printer can reside, for example, in a wagering terminal (e.g., slot machine), ticket machine, point-of-sale terminal or the like. A first driver receives, e.g., from a local controller, data indicative of voucher information to be printed. A second driver receives, e.g., from a central system controller, data indicative of coupon information to be printed. A processor responsive to the first and second drivers generates printer commands in a standard printer format so that the same printer can be used to print vouchers and coupons. Coupons do not have to be processed by the secure (and usually proprietary) hardware and/or software provided by the terminal manufacturer for printing vouchers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to printers, and moreparticularly to an interface for driving a printer in a user terminal.Such printers are particularly well suited for use in gaming machines,vending machines, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, transportation andentertainment ticket machines, and the like.

Ticket printers are useful in a variety of applications. One suchapplication is to print coded tickets or vouchers used in lotteryterminals, slot machines and other self-service wagering or transaction(e.g., train, event or airline ticket) apparatus. For purposes of thepresent disclosure and appended claims, the term “voucher” will be usedto mean a printed document, such as a ticket, that has (or potentiallyhas) a meaningful cash value and must be printed using secure technologyto prevent counterfeiting. The term “coupon” is used to refer todocuments that have at most only a negligible cash value, and which canbe printed without the high level of security required for vouchers. Itshould be appreciated that coupons may be printed using securetechnology; however, the level of security will typically be lower thanthat used in connection with vouchers.

Various printer systems have been proposed for use in self-serviceterminals, such as for cashless gaming systems used, e.g., at casinosand racetracks. In such systems, a voucher is printed for use by agaming patron instead of, e.g., tokens, cash, debit cards and creditcards. Such self-service terminals may be controlled, or at leastpartially controlled, by a Central System Controller (CSC) via anetwork. The CSC may be situated at the same location as the terminals,or may be remotely located. A remotely located CSC may service differentterminal populations at a plurality of facilities (such as differentcasinos, racetracks, retail lottery establishments, etc.).

A facility that uses the terminals may desire to have the capability forthe terminal printers to print items other than the voucher. Forexample, it may be desired to print coupons for use at the facility.Such coupons may, for example, provide free or discounted food items atthe facility. Other types of coupons are also envisioned in order tofulfill e.g., various marketing, advertising, and promotional purposes,such as discounts to future special events, advertising of new productsand services, free or discounted parking, hotel room upgrades, traveland entertainment promotions, contest entries, and the like.

In most of the terminals already in the field, there is no way for thefacility management to access the printer portion of the terminal toprint special coupons that are separate from (and may be unrelated to)the vouchers. In order to provide such a capability, vendors haveoffered new models of terminals that can print coupons. These newterminals require the use of proprietary software, hardware and/orprotocols to enable the terminal printer to print vouchers and coupons.The printing of coupons, when offered, is handled via the secureprocessing channels used for the vouchers, which vouchers are subject tostricter access control and security requirements. This solution isunacceptable to many facilities because it requires the purchase of newterminals. For a facility that has hundreds of such terminals, such asolution is cost prohibitive.

It would be advantageous to provide a more cost effective way forfacilities to print coupons from their terminals. Preferably, such asystem would allow present terminals to be used, without the need toreplace an existing population of terminals. It would be furtheradvantageous to allow a controller (e.g., a secure controller) that isinternal to the terminal (e.g., wagering terminal, POS terminal, orother consumer terminal) to communicate with the terminal printer toprint vouchers, while also allowing a CSC, which is external to theterminal, to communicate with the built-in terminal printer to printcoupons and other documents.

The present invention provides various printer interface embodiments foruse with existing and future terminals, which embodiments enjoy theabove and other advantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, an interface is provided fordriving a printer. A first driver receives, from a local controller,data indicative of information to be printed. A second driver receives,from a central system controller, data indicative of information to beprinted. A processor responsive to the first and second driversgenerates printer commands in a standard format for the printer.

In one embodiment, the first driver receives data in a first format, andthe second driver receives data in a second format. For example, thefirst driver might receive data in one of an RS-232, Netplex, USB or I2Cformat, with the second driver receiving data in another one of theRS-232, Netplex, USB or I2C formats.

The first driver and the processor together decode data from the localcontroller and convert the decoded local controller data to the standardformat. The second driver and the processor together decode data fromthe central system controller and convert the decoded central systemcontroller data to the standard format. In an illustrated embodiment,the first driver processes cash data from the local controller for usein printing a voucher. The second driver processes non-cash data fromthe central system controller for use in printing a coupon.

The interface can be built into the printer. Alternatively, it can beprovided external to the printer. The printer can comprise, for example,a gaming machine printer, a point of sale terminal printer, or the like.

A method is disclosed for driving a printer from a local controller anda central system controller. The method comprises monitoringcommunications from the local and central system controllers. Theavailability of the printer is determined when a printer communicationis received from one of the controllers. If the printer is available,printer data are decoded in one format and converted to a standardprinter format for communication to the printer. If the printer is notavailable, the controller from which the printer communication wasreceived is notified that the printer is busy. Monitoring of thecommunications is then continued.

If printer communications are simultaneously received from bothcontrollers, preference can be given to the local game controller.Alternatively, preference can be given to the central system controller,depending on the desired system implementation. The printer cancomprise, for example, a gaming machine printer or a point of saleterminal printer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block-diagram of a prior art architecture for controllingthe printer in a slot machine;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system architecture in accordance withthe present invention,

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example interface implementation inaccordance with the invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an another system architecture embodimentin accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example communication flow thatcan be implemented in order to carry out the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the printing of vouchers and couponsfor dispensing to customers. More particularly, the invention relates toan interface for enabling printers to print vouchers in response tocommands from a local controller and to print coupons in response tocommands from a central system controller. The printer can reside in acustomer operated terminal such as a gaming machine (e.g., slot machineor lottery terminal), vending machine, self-service ticket terminal, POSterminal, or the like. In a gaming machine implementation, the localcontroller can comprise the portion of the gaming machine sometimesreferred to as the “game controller.” In such an implementation, thesystem controller can comprise the central system controller that issometimes referred to as the “game management unit.” Typically, thelocal controller is part of the terminal that provides the customer withthe vouchers and coupons, and the central system controller is a remotedevice that is either in the same facility where the terminals arelocated, or in a different facility that can be located virtuallyanywhere.

Various well known standards are mentioned herein for use incommunicating signals between different elements of the disclosedembodiments. These include the RS-232, USB, Netplex and I2C standards.RS-232 is a well known standard that provides an interface between dataterminal equipment and data communications equipment, in which serialbinary data interchange is used. Netplex, a standard developed byInternational Game Technology of Reno, Nev., USA, provides a multidropserial communication link between a central system and peripheraldevices, and is used to transfer information and allow control ofperipherals. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a connectivity specificationdeveloped by the USB Implementers Forum. USB is used to connectperipherals outside a computer in order to eliminate the inconvenienceof opening the computer case for installing cards needed for certaindevices. I2C, or 2-wire communication, is a form of synchronous serialcommunication that was developed by Phillips Semiconductor.

The interface disclosed herein overcomes the drawbacks of prior artsystems that require a proprietary terminal to be purchased to provideboth vouchers and coupons. Such a prior art system is shown in FIG. 1,where a terminal printer 10 is provided for printing vouchers andcoupons in response to commands from a game controller 14. The gamecontroller 14 provides print commands to printer 10 using a protocol 12that is compatible with the printer. For example, protocol 12 maycomprise one or the other of the R-S232 or Netplex protocols well knownin the art of data transmission.

In the prior art embodiment of FIG. 1, the game controller 14 is aproprietary device that is included in the gaming machine. The gamecontroller controls the basic gaming machine hardware, including theprinter, coin dispenser, bill acceptor, reels (for a slot machine), etc.and also generates ticket data using a serial number obtained from acentral system controller via a system interface 16. The systeminterface communicates with the central system controller and with thegame controller. It obtains the ticket serial numbers from the centralsystem controller and provides these numbers to the game controller. Thesystem interface is also responsible for player tracking, and controlsthe gaming machine card reader and display.

Each particular manufacturer of such gaming machines will generally haveits own game controller technology which is kept secret for security andcompetitive reasons. Due to the proprietary nature of the gamecontroller which drives the printer, it is not possible for the customerto access the printer directly for the printing of other documents, suchas coupons. And, where coupon printing is offered in present day gamingmachines, it is only provided via the proprietary game controller, whichmeans the coupons must be generated in association with the gamingmachine manufacturer. In particular, where a customer desires a couponto be printed, the manufacturer of the gaming machine must provide thetechnology to do so via the game controller 14. This enables themanufacturer to charge additional fees to upgrade current gamingmachines, or to require the purchase of new gaming machines with couponprinting capabilities.

At least one gaming machine manufacturer has provided a new modelterminal that allows coupon information input at the central systemcontroller to be communicated to the gaming machine system interface 16via communication path 18. The communication path 18 can comprise, forexample, a private network (wired and/or wireless) or the Internet. Thesystem interface 16 will pass the coupon information via path 15 to theproprietary game controller 14, which converts the information asnecessary to generate coupon print commands that are provided to theterminal printer 10. Since only the game controller 14 communicates withthe printer, there is no way to avoid the use of the proprietary gamecontroller technology to effect the printing of coupons. Thus, thefacilities (e.g., casinos) that own the gaming machines are completelydependent on the gaming machine manufacturers to provide the ability toprint coupons in addition to the vouchers that the gaming machines arealready designed to print.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment according to the present invention,wherein coupons can be printed without reliance on the gaming machinemanufacturer. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, a printer interface 23 isprovided between the system interface 26, game controller 24 and theprinter 20. Information from the central system controller (which mayoptionally include information defining a particular coupon to beprinted) is provided to the system interface 26 via communication path28 (similar to communication path 18). The system interface passes thedata received from the central system controller to the game controller24 in a conventional manner, via path 29 (like path 15 in FIG. 1). Theconventional data provided as output from the game controller 24 iscommunicated to the printer interface 23 via path 25 with the normalprotocol used by the game controller, e.g., RS-232 or Netplex (“ProtocolA”). The information received from the central system controller is alsopassed from the system interface 26 directly to the printer interface 23via path 27, according to a suitable protocol such as I2C (“ProtocolB”). It should be understood that any of various different protocols canbe used to send the printer information from the system interface 26 tothe printer interface 23. In fact, one of the advantages of the presentinvention is that the communication between the system interface and theprinter interface is not a proprietary communication, as is thecommunication between the game controller and the printer interface.Thus, while Protocol A will be defined by the game machine manufacturer,Protocol B is not so defined. Protocol B can be any protocol that thesystem interface is capable of communicating with. By providing ageneric printer interface 23, the present invention allows couponinformation from the central system controller to be printed withoutpassing through and being subject to the processing requirements of thegame controller 24.

Once the printer interface 23 receives data from either game controller24 (e.g., voucher information) or system interface 26 (e.g., couponinformation), it determines whether the printer 20 is available, and ifso, processes the received data for communication to the printer in aproper format. The properly formatted data is then sent to the printervia path 22, using the protocol (e.g., RS-232) that the printer isdesigned to receive. The operation of the printer interface is explainedin greater detail hereinafter in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the hardware andsoftware/firmware components of the printer interface 23. A processor 30processes data received from the game controller 24 and the systeminterface 26 via respective drivers 33, 34 and/or 35. Driver 33 is, forexample, a Netplex driver configured to receive data formatted using theNetplex protocol from the game controller. Such data may comprise, forexample, data necessary to print a voucher. Alternatively, the gamecontroller may be configured to provide voucher data using the RS-232protocol, in which case data will be received by and passed to theprocessor 30 using RS-232 drivers 34. Coupon data is provided to theprocessor 30 from the central system controller via the system interfaceusing, e.g., an I2C protocol. The I2C driver 35 processes the coupondata from the system interface and passes it on to the processor 30.

Software and/or firmware that instructs the processor 30 how to decodeand convert the data received from the game controller and systeminterface to the format required by the printer is stored in one or moreof EEPROM 36 and flash memory 31. SDRAM 32 is provided for storage ofinterim values computed by processor 30 as well as other temporaryinformation as well known in the art. Once the voucher or couponinformation is decoded and converted to the proper format for printing,it is communicated to the printer via RS-232 drivers 34. Prior to beingcommunicated to the printer, the print data can be temporarily stored inSDRAM 32.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an alternate embodiment where the printerinterface 23 is incorporated within the terminal printer. In particular,all of the elements illustrated in FIG. 3 can be built into terminalprinter 40. Such an embodiment is an economical alternative to providinga separate printer interface as shown in FIG. 2, since the printercontroller already present in the printer can provide many (if not all)of the functionality provided by printer interface processor 30. Memoryalready present in the printer can also be shared to accommodate theneeds of the printer interface. Such an implementation eliminates theneed for two separate processors and additional memory.

As shown in FIG. 4, all communications between the game controller andsystem interface discussed in connection with FIG. 2 are now passeddirectly to the terminal printer 40. The functions of printer interface23 and communication path 22 will be performed by equivalent elementsthat are integrated with the printer 40 itself.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the communication flow for theprinter interface. It is noted that the communication flow illustratedis an example of one possible implementation of the printer interface,and that other implementations are possible and within the intendedscope of the invention.

The routine of FIG. 5 starts at box 50. At box 52, the communicationports from the game controller and system interface are monitored for acommunication event. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, theprinter interface 23 monitors communications from the game controller 24via path 25. Similarly, communications from the system interface 26 aremonitored via path 27. If a communication event (e.g., a message for theprinter) is detected at box 54, the communication source (gamecontroller or system interface) will be determined at box 56.

Upon determining that a printer message has arrived from the systeminterface, the message is directed from box 56 to box 58, where adetermination is made as to whether the printer is available to print acoupon received from the central system controller. If not, a busystatus signal is sent to the system interface so that it can send themessage again later (box 60). The routine then continues to monitor thecommunication ports as indicated at box 52.

If it is determined at box 58 that the printer is available to print acoupon, the coupon data from the system interface is received (box 62),decoded (box 64), and converted to a standard printer data stream (box66). The standard printer data stream is formatted for the particularprinter that is going to print the coupon (e.g., terminal printer 20 ofFIG. 2 or terminal printer 40 of FIG. 4). Although different printerscan be provided to print coupons and vouchers, the preferred embodimentis to use the same printer for both. After the coupon information isconverted to the standard printer data stream as indicated at box 66, itis forwarded to the printer for printing of the coupon (box 80). Theroutine then returns to box 52, where the communication ports continueto be monitored.

In the event that a communication event is detected from the gamecontroller, this fact is determined at boxes 54 and 56, and at box 70 adetermination is made as to whether the printer is available to print avoucher. If not, a busy status is sent to the game controller (box 72)and the routine returns to box 52 for continued monitoring of thecommunication ports. If the printer is determined to be available at box70, the game controller data is received at box 74, decoded at box 76,and converted to a standard printer data stream at box 78. The standardprinter data stream, formatted for the printer, is passed on to theprinter for printing of the voucher, as indicated at box 80. The routinethen loops back to box 52 for continued monitoring of the communicationports.

The standard printer data stream will be formatted according to theprotocol needed by the particular printer used. For example (and asshown in FIG. 3), the printer data stream may be in the RS-232 format.Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other formats can be used,such as I2C, Netplex, or USB. New printer formats can be accommodated asthey are developed, by providing the appropriate driver in the printerinterface.

It should now be appreciated that the present invention provides aninterface for driving a printer. The printer can reside, for example, ina customer terminal of the type described above, or in any other devicewhich provides coupons and vouchers. In an illustrated embodiment, afirst driver receives, e.g., from a local controller, data indicative ofvoucher information to be printed. A second driver receives, e.g., froma central system controller, data indicative of coupon information to beprinted. A processor responsive to the first and second driversgenerates printer commands in a standard format for the printer. The useof a printer interface in accordance with the invention enables one ormore terminal printers to be used for both vouchers and coupons, withoutrequiring the coupons to be processed by the secure (and usuallyproprietary) hardware and/or software provided by the terminalmanufacturer.

Although the invention has been described in connection with variousspecific embodiments, it should be appreciated that numerous adaptationsand modifications may be made thereto without departing from theintended scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

1. An interface for driving a printer, comprising: a first driver forreceiving, from a local controller, cash data indicative of informationto be printed on a voucher; a second driver for receiving, from acentral system controller, non-cash data indicative of information to beprinted on a coupon; and a processor responsive to said first and seconddrivers for generating printer commands in a standard format for saidprinter.
 2. An interface in accordance with claim 1, wherein said firstdriver receives data in a first format, and said second driver receivesdata in a second format.
 3. An interface in accordance with claim 2,wherein: said first driver receives data in one of an RS-232, Netplex,USB or I2C format; and said second driver receives data in another oneof said RS-232, Netplex, USB or I2C formats.
 4. An interface inaccordance with claim 1, wherein: said first driver and said processortogether decode data from said local controller and convert the decodedlocal controller data to said standard format; and said second driverand said processor together decode data from said central systemcontroller and convert the decoded central system controller data tosaid standard format.
 5. An interface in accordance with claim 1,wherein said interface is built into the printer.
 6. An interface inaccordance with claim 1, wherein said interface is external to theprinter.
 7. An interface in accordance with claim 1, wherein saidprinter is a gaming machine printer.
 8. An interface in accordance withclaim 1, wherein said printer is a point of sale terminal printer.